4G battles to help E-commerce: Snapdeal's Kunal Bahl

The 4G battles being waged between telecom operators will eventually lead to the acceleration of the online shopping universe, said Kunal BahlSamidha Sharma | TNN | September 13, 2016, 11:08 IST

Kunal Bahl, has decisively raised the pitch against Flipkart, emphatic that his company will become India's largest ecommerce firm in terms of gross sales this fiscal year. Online marketplace Snapdeal is making extensive efforts to regain lost ground with the launch of a brand new image and positioning as it lags Amazon and Flipkart in the Indian e-commerce sweepstakes.

A new logo, design, tagline and an elaborate media campaign are being rolled out just in time for the festive season by the Gurgaon-based e-tailer, which has slid to the third spot in a fiercely competitive online commerce market where growth has plateaued over the past year.

Part of a Rs 200-crore media and advertising outlay planned for the next few months, the brand overhaul will be extremely critical for Snapdeal as it strives to draw customers to its platform.

Kunal Bahl, co-founder & CEO of Snapdeal, told TOI he was optimistic the 4G battles being waged between telecom operators will eventually lead to the acceleration of the online shopping universe and will bring in at least 100 million customers on board over the next few years.

"We have to offer these shoppers a clear positioning. We've made a lot of progress on experience like shipping, returns as well as on the efficiency of our business. Now, we are pushing the pedal on growth,' he said. The total number of online buyers is currently pegged around 50-60 million.

Snapdeal started work on its image makeover around four months ago after it hired London-based agency DesignStudio, which has worked with Airbnb for its redesign and rebranding exercise in 2014.

Snapdeal's new tagline 'Unbox Zindagi' was coined by ad guru and lyricist Prasoon Joshi, chairman of McCann Worldgroup Asia Pacific. His agency has worked on the e-tailer's advertising campaign.

"You won't see the impact of this on our business overnight but it's the right thing to do and the result will come over a period of time," Bahl said when asked about how the new positioning will help prop up sales.

"This is an evolution for us. We are not shedding the past but recognizing the current landscape. In addition to the existing buyers, small town new customers will make up the bulk of the new 100 million online shoppers in India and we want to be there for them," he said.

Aided by a massive war chest with investment commitments topping $5 billion for India, Amazon India has snagged market share from Snapdeal due to superior service and customer experience in the last one year.

While Amazon and Flipkart (inclusive of Myntra and Jabong) are clocking Rs 2,000 crore and Rs 2,400 crore of monthly sales, respectively, Snapdeal is estimated to have registered around Rs 700 crore as of August.

This year, e-commerce biggies have moved away from showcasing gross merchandise value or GMVs as their key metric to exhibit rapid growth and ratchet up their valuations in multi-billion dollar fund-raises due to sales numbers flattening. GMV is overall sales on an online marketplace, excluding discounts and returns.

At a time when funding isn't coming easy and valuations are being questioned by investors, most e-commerce players have begun propounding the significance of returning customers, which their founders keep stressing in media interactions.

Snapdeal launched a premium membership service called Snapdeal Gold offering customers free shipping, next-day-delivery and other benefits to enhance loyalty. This followed Amazon's introduction of its popular Prime services and Flipkart starting its F-Assured programme.